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THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE—1776 1
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united
States of America
WHEN in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the
political bands which have connected them with
another, and to assume among the powers of the
earth, the separate and equal station to which
the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle
them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the
causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that
all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and
the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these
rights, Governments are instituted among Men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of
the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is
the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it,
and to institute new Government, laying its
foundation on such principles and organizing its
powers in such form, as to them shall seem most
likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments
long established should not be changed for light
and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than
to right themselves by abolishing the forms to
which they are accustomed. But when a long
train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce
them under absolute Despotism, it is their right,
it is their duty, to throw off such Government,
and to provide new Guards for their future security.—Such has been the patient sufferance of
these Colonies; and such is now the necessity
which constrains them to alter their former
Systems of Government. The history of the
present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute
Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let
Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most
wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of
immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should
be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless
those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at
places unusual, uncomfortable, and distance from the depository of their public Records, for
the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his
invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby
the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for
their exercise; the State remaining in the mean
time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from
without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population
of these States; for that purpose obstructing the
Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing
to pass others to encourage their migrations
hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will
alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the
amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and
sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace,
Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to
a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and
unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent
to their acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops
among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from
punishment for any Murders which they should
commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the
world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits
of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried
for pretended offenses:
For abolishing the free System of English
Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing
therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging
its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the
same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our
most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally
the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War
against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts,
burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our
people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of
foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of
death, desolation and tyranny, already begun
with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken
Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against
their Country, to become the executioners of
their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves
by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections
amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the
inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an
undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes
and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have
Petitioned for Redress in the most humble
terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose
character is thus marked by every act which
may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of
a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our
Brittish brethren. We have warned them from
time to time of attempts by their legislature to
extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us.
We have reminded them of the circumstances of
our emigration and settlement here. We have
appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of
our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our
connections and correspondence. They too have
been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the
necessity, which denounces our Separation, and
hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
WE, THEREFORE, the Representatives of the
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in General Congress,
Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of
the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do,
in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of
Right ought to be FREE AND INDEPENDENT
STATES; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of
Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States,
they have full Power to levy War, conclude
Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce,
and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on
the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
JOHN HANCOCK.
New Hampshire
JOSIAH BARTLETT, MATTHEW THORNTON.
WM. WHIPPLE,
Massachusetts Bay
SAML. ADAMS, ROBT. TREAT PAINE,
JOHN ADAMS, ELBRIDGE GERRY.
Rhode Island
STEP. HOPKINS, WILLIAM ELLERY.
Connecticut
ROGER SHERMAN, WM. WILLIAMS,
SAM’EL HUNTINGTON, OLIVER WOLCOTT.
New York
WM. FLOYD, FRANS. LEWIS,
PHIL. LIVINGSTON, LEWIS MORRIS.
New Jersey
RICHD. STOCKTON, JOHN HART,
JNO. WITHERSPOON, ABRA. CLARK.
FRAS. HOPKINSON,
Pennsylvania
ROBT. MORRIS, JAS. SMITH,
BENJAMIN RUSH, GEO. TAYLOR,
BENJA. FRANKLIN, JAMES WILSON,
JOHN MORTON, GEO. ROSS.
GEO. CLYMER,
Delaware
CAESAR RODNEY, THO. M’KEAN.
GEO. READ,
Maryland
SAMUEL CHASE, CHARLES CARROLL OF
WM. PACA, Carrollton.
THOS. STONE,
Virginia
GEORGE WYTHE, THOS. NELSON, jr.,
RICHARD HENRY LEE, FRANCIS LIGHTFOOT
TH. JEFFERSON, LEE,
BENJA. HARRISON, CARTER BRAXTON.
North Carolina
WM. HOOPER, JOHN PENN.
JOSEPH HEWES,
South Carolina
THOS. HEYWARD, THOMAS LYNCH, Junr.,
Junr., ARTHUR MIDDLETON.
EDWARD RUTLEDGE,
Georgia
BUTTON GWINNETT, GEO. WALTON.
LYMAN HALL,